...And Reconcile Us With Evil: A Critical Investigation of the Imagery of Good and Evil in Western Religion, Film and Politics

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...And Reconcile Us With Evil

A Critical Investigation of the Imagery of Good and Evil in Western Religion, Film, and Politics

Religion in Peace and Conflict Uppsala Universitet, Teologiska Fakulteten

Author: Arne L Gellrich Supervisor: Nils Billing Examinator: Kajsa Ahlstrand

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Abstract

With an eye on the current social and political situation in Europe, and with regards to the so-termed refugee crisis, this study aims to map the discourse on assumed good and evil shared among Western cultures, as represented by Sweden, Germany and the United States.

The thesis takes its point of departure from essayistic reflections of the philosophical tradition and theological and religious analytical positions respectively. These are then followed by two in- vestigative main chapters, designed along the lines of Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical dis- course analysis (CDA).

The first of these chapters studies the narratives of good and evil employed in the mainstream cinema of the past ten years in the mentioned countries.

The second analysis is made up of three case studies, in turn looking at similar narratives in the campaigns of the two main competitors in the 2016 presidential race, a German protest movement against free trade agreements, and the everyday political communication of Swedish Facebook us- ers. In a final chapter, findings from all four preceding chapters are brought together in an attempt to sketch an image of the congruences and discrepancies of narratives on good and evil in the overall discursive field.

The thesis finds that the discursive field shared by the three investigated societies is largely ho- mogenous, with certain imagery permeating all analysed orders of discourse. Many of the reoccurring images are however likely rooted in the human psyche and therefore less dependent on discourse practice. Furthermore, certain principles are agreed upon in theory while not reproduced in social practice. Themes assigned to either good or evil often seem to take on secondary functions next to assumed fixed identities of in- and out-groups.

Being a qualitative study, this thesis aims at giving an overview and delivering a base for further investigations rather than providing definitive answers.

...And Reconcile Us With Evil

A Critical Investigation of the Imagery of Good and Evil in Western Religion, Film and Politics

Religion in Peace and Conflict Uppsala Universitet, Teologiska Fakulteten

Author: Arne L Gellrich Supervisor: Nils Billing Examinator: Kajsa Ahlstrand

Cover illustration using material from the film Nosferatu – Symphonie des Grauens (1922, directed by F W Murnau, DR:

Jofa-Atelier Berlin-Johannisthal/Prana-Film GmbH.)

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Nils Billing for his tutoring and criticism. Also, for his criticism and theologi-

cal expertise, Knut Wormstädt is deserving of sencere thanks. Finally, I am, as always, indebted to

Annemieke Munderloh for her unwavering personal, intellectual and editorial support, as well as my

dear friend Julian Heno for more of the same.

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Figures

Fig. 1: Die Linke canvas portraying fictional villain Darth Vader 2 Source: private photo, taken 27 August 2016.

Fig. 2: Logo of the Italian MoVimento 5 Stelle 2 Source: MoVimento 5 Stelle, Accessed 7 October 2016.

Fig. 3: John Kerry tweets about meeting film executives 2

Source: Kerry, J. (JohnKerry), 17 February 2016. (Twitter post)

Fig. 4: Flyer for the defiant TTIP protest march on April 24th 2016 63 Source: collected in Hanover, 23 April 2016.

Fig. 5: Banner put up in Hanover by the Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft 63 Source: private photo, taken 23 April 2016.

Fig. 6: Banner put up in Hanover by Greenpeace 63

Source: private photo, taken 23 April 2016.

Fig. 7: Wooden figure portraying the Trojan horse at the demonstration at Hanover. 64 Source: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Accessed 7 October 2016.

Fig. 8: Placard portraying Mr. Burns 65

Source: Nocun, K. (Kattascha), 11 October 2011. (Twitter post)

Fig. 10: Protesters dressed up as monsters representing freetrade agreements 65 Source: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Accessed 7 October 2016.

Fig. 9: Using imagery from The Godfather 65

Source: BBC World Service, 11 October 2016.

Fig. 11: Placard combing the association of excrement and disease 67 Source: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Accessed 7 October 2016.

Figures, Abbreviations v

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مﻡﺎﺸﻟاﺍوﻭ قﻕاﺍﺮﻌﻟاﺍ ﻲﻓ ﺔﯿﻴﻣﻼﺳﻹاﺍ ﺔﻟوﻭﺪﻟاﺍ

List of Abbreviations

AfD Alternative für Deutschland, German EU-sceptic right wing party AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Brexit the (process of) separation of the UK from the EU

BUND Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz, German NGO dedicated to the protection of the natural environment

CDA Critical discourse analysis according to Fairclough CE Common Era, the internationally agreed upon calendar

CETA (EU-Canada) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

CSU Christlich-soziale Union, conservative majority party in the German Free State of Bavaria

D Democratic Party of the US

Daesh (simplified anglophone Latin transliteration) ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fīʿl-ʿIrāq wa- sh-Shām ( ), translating to “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”, Middle Eastern guerilla organisation claiming the status of the Cali- phate

DGB Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, the Confederation of German Trade Unions

EIC (British) East India Company

EU European Union

FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the US 1933–45

GDR German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik), East-German dictatorial state, disbanded 1990

GoG the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy

GOP Grand Old Party, nickname for the US Republican Party

HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus

ICC International Criminal Court

IQ intelligence quotient

IS, ISIL, ISIS see Daesh

JFK John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the US 1961–3 LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender

MENA Middle East (including Muslim-dominated central Asia) and Northern Africa MI6 Military Intelligence, Section 6, former British secret service

MNC Multinational Corporations

MP Member of Parliament

NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

NGO Non-governmental organisation

Obamacare nickname for the comprehensive health insurance introduced under US president Barack Obama

PC, pk politically correct, politiskt korrekt

PEGIDA Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (“Patriotic Europe- ans Against the Islamisation of the Occident”), German right wing protest movement PoC The Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise

PRC People’s Republic of China

R Republican Party of the US

TPP (Economic) Trans-Pacific Partnership (Agreement)

TTIP Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (Agreement)

SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Social Democratic Party of Germany

SSA Sub-Saharan Africa

UN United Nations (Organisation)

UK United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) UNHRC United Nations Human Rights Council

UNSC United Nations Security Council US, USA United States (of America)

WWF World Wide Fund for Nature, NGO dedicated to the protection of natural environ- ment, specialising in biodiversity

vi ...And Reconcile Us with Evil

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Introduction

1. Presentation of the research topic

The terrorist attacks of September 11

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, 2001, have largely been interpreted as part of an inter-civi- lisational conflict, an attack not only on the US, but also on Western capitalism and the concept of Western liberal society itself. In the wake of “9/11”, this conflict is generally framed along the lines that seemed instinctively correct, portraying “America and its coalition partners […] as heroic, decent and peaceful – the defenders of freedom”, while “terrorists are […] demonised and vilified as being evil, barbaric and inhuman, […] not because they are rationally calculating political actors but simply because it is in their nature to be evil.”

¹

As Richard Jackson, professor at the national centre for Peace and Conflict Research at the Uni- versity of Otago, New Zealand, argues in his 2005 analysis of the US counter-terrorism discourse, this duality of good versus evil was then consciously created and orchestrated by the Bush adminis- tration.

²

However, today it lives on, blending with pre-existent fears and stereotypes that Edward Said had described as early as 1979

³

. Similar principles can be observed in the rhetoric of nationalists and opponents of immigration across the Western world. The recent success of nationalist and right-wing politicians across Western cultures demonstrates the power of discourse in a world that many have described as a “post-truth” society, where constructed realities at times seem more important than observable facts. Indeed, in the US, public belief in a narrative of progressive decline of traditional values that Seymour Martin Lipset diagnosed thirty years ago

⁴

and its employment by presidential candidate Donald Trump may well turn out to be the decisive factor in the presidential election.

⁵

1 Richard Jackson, 2005. Writing the War on Terrorism. Language, Politics and Counter-Terrorism. Manchester (UK):

Manchester University Press:59, emphasis mine.

2 Cf. Jackson 2005.

3 cf. Edward W. Said, 1979. Orientalism. Vintage Books Edition. New York (NY, US): Random House, Inc.:205f.

4 cf. Seymour M. Lipset, 1996. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. New York (NY, US): W. W. Norton

& Company, Inc.:267ff.

5 cf. e.g. Mark Berman, 2016. What Trump says about crime in America and what is really going on. In: The Wash- ington Post. [online]. HTML available through: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/21/

what-trump-says-about-crime-in-america-and-what-is-really-going-on/?utm_term=.4d1a2ee22711> [Accessed 7 Octo- ber 2016].

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Yet, Orientalism and American pessimism are only examples of subconsciously agreed-upon discourse channelling actual political behaviour (attitudes towards homeless people and criminals or the lack of interest for Sub-Saharan Africa’s bloody conflicts are other examples). As we have seen above, in the end it all depends on the old less elaborate — yet perhaps the most primeval — stereo- type deeply anchored in the Western civilisation: the dual narrative of Good and Evil.

The Good versus Evil duality is clearly one of the most common clichés transcending popular culture, entertainment, political speech, media narratives and even supposedly unbiased social sci- ences alike. It here often seems hard to believe that these different aspects of society should not influence one another. Indeed, political movements on all levels will at times explicitly refer to popu- lar entertainment media, especially cinematic feature films: in the 2016 communal elections in the German Federal State of Lower Saxony, for instance, the democratic socialist party Die Linke (“The Left”) in the city of Oldenburg canvassed using an image of the villain Darth Vader from the Star Wars franchise, offering an alternative to “the Dark Side” (see fig. 1), while the new — and first ever female — mayor of Rome in Italy ran for the MoVimento 5 Stelle (“5 Star MoVement”), whose logo, a red capital “V”, is adopted from the film V for Vendetta

⁶

. Cinema has also inspired the less established political sphere, for example the online hacker community Anonymous, which uses the iconic Guy Fawkes-masks prominently featuring in said film.

The influence of popular culture suggests that the kind of mediated discourse studied by Jackson, which includes news media and official political communication is only an element of a much wider discursive field. And the exchange in discourse practice between politics and entertainment media goes both ways: politicians have been known to — at times quite openly — influence the film indus- try. US secretary of John Kerry for example recently tweeted about his meeting with Hollywood ex- ecutives to discuss “how to counter #Daesh [sic] narrative” (cf. Figure 2), while television producers such as the BBC have been accused of “a ‘complicity’ with Tony Blair and George Bush” in depicting a “false reality” about terror-plotting Muslims.

⁷

6 V for Vendetta, 2005. Directed by James McTeigure. US/DE/UK: Warner Brothers/Silver Pictures/Studio Babelsberg/

DC Comics.

7 cf. Vanessa Thorpe, 2004. BBC under fire for ‘false reality’. In: The Guardian. [online] HTML available through:

<https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/oct/17/uk.media>. [Accessed 13 October 2016].

2. Aim and Research Question

The intent of this study is to develop a conception of this discourse on Good and Evil in Western cul- ture, and to what degree it re-emerges in political communication.

Religious belief, and specifically the various forms of institutional Christianity have traditionally been an important element of Western culture; in addition, religious interpretations of good and evil, and the power of religious belief to inspire to both good and evil deed, are in many ways the bane of current global political affairs. This thesis therefore cannot ignore the religious dimension of the topic. Furthermore, as major element of contemporary Western culture that puts a strong emphasis on narrative, the feature film is singled out as an element for closer scrutiny.

The Research Question which this study sets out to answer is thus:

In what way is Western social and political discourse permeated by narratives of Good and Evil as framed by the cultural factors of Christian religious influence and popular feature film?

To the extent to which the study’s findings constitute a sufficient base for such endeavours, it is also an aim to identify problems and pose questions to be solved and answered in further and continued research of the topic. Ideally, the evaluation of the findings will serve as a stable fundament upon which to build the concept for a mediated approach towards changing aggressive promotion of iden- tity to the better.

3. Analytical framework 3.1 Methodology

Following Nietzsche’s critique of ‘“logical fiction”, social constructionism, which lies at the base of this study as summarised by Vivien Burr, “cautions us to be ever suspicious of our assumptions about how the world appears to be.”

⁸

Burr maintains that our perception of the world is “historically and culturally specific”

⁹

, and “fabricated” and sustained “through the daily interactions between people in the course of social life”

¹⁰

—which in return is influenced by the perception of reality

¹¹

. Accord- ingly, ideology, political thought, and the political and social action based on that thought are not to be observed as independent, nuclear phenomena, but rather as parts of a discourse that transcends the social environment of all and any members of society. Discourse is here understood along the lines of Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse theory, that is as the use of language (in the wider sense, including non-verbal semiotics) as social practice

¹²

, reproducing itself, and in doing so, both describ-

8 Vivien Burr, 1995. An introduction to social constructionism. 2000 reprint, London (UK): Routledge:3.

9 ibid.

10 Burr, 1995:4.

11 cf. Burr, 1995:5.

12 cf. Norman Fairclough, 2010. Critical Discourse Analysis. The Critical Study of Language. Second Edition. Harlow (UK): Pearson Education Ltd.:79; see also: Marianne Winther Jørgensen & Louise Phillips, 2000. Diskursanalys som teori och metod. Translation from the Danish original: Sven-Erik Thorell. Lund (SE): Studentlitteratur AB.:72.

2 ...And Reconcile Us with Evil Introduction 3

Fig. 1: Die Linke canvas portraying fictional

villain Darth Vader Fig. 2: Logo of the Italian MoVi-

mento 5 Stelle Fig. 3: John Kerry tweets about meeting film executives

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ing and constituting social reality

¹³

:

“[...] ‘discourse’ is use of language seen as a form of social practice, and discourse analysis is analysis of how texts work within sociocultural practice.”¹⁴

To distinguish between texts, they are throughout this thesis classified by order of discourse and genre. In following Fairclough, the concept of orders of discourse is to be read as defining the kind of the text (for example political speech)

¹⁵

, while genre defines the narrative function of the text (for example the comedy-genre).

While texts supplied by the news media and political commentary may be leaning towards cer- tain ideological positions (or perceived to be thusly skewed) and can hence be chosen according to the world view of the consumer

¹⁶

, other orders of discourse, such as the feature film (again consciously or unconsciously) carry values that to a high degree belong to a certain ideological view, while be- ing hidden among the subtleties of the narrative. Accordingly, it is harder for consumers to withdraw themselves from exposure to ideological discourse in entertainment genres than in informative gen- res. Thus, the feature film, as a major form of popular entertainment, serves as a medium to reinforce mainstream discourse, as well as introduce its narrative elements to an audience beyond the original peer group.

3.2 Method and structure

The study is introduced by an essayistic overview of the discourse on the concepts of evil and good in the humanities. To establish which themes are prevalent in the religious discourse, the second chap- ter then takes a look at Christian theology, scripture and secular perception, including its precursive Jewish traditions. The themes identified throughout these presentations serve as the theoretical frame- work for later elaboration (or re-evaluation) during the analytical chapters.

The main study is composed of a composite desk study in the form of a set of mainly qualitative cross-case textual analyses, roughly following critical discourse analysis as described by Norman Fairclough (hereafter CDA). As touched upon above, the approach is based on a social construction- ist perspective, questioning perceptions of truth, and acknowledging the significance of discourse in shaping social reality

¹⁷

.

Fairclough’s CDA investigates three dimensions of the respective text. These are (1) the text itself in form and meaning, (2) discourse practice, that is the practice concerning production and consumption of the text, and (3) social practice, the way in which the text affects social reality

13 cf. Winther Jørgensen & Phillips, 2000:83f.

14 Fairclough, 1995:7.

15 cf. Fairclough, 1995:12 — Fairclough adapts this concept from Foucault.

16 The all-out mistrust and rejection of public service and liberal media held by the German rightwing PEGIDA-move- ment and its political cousin, the AfD-party is an example of such disparity.

17 Cf. also Winther Jørgensen & Phillip, 2000:13f.

through “relations of power and domination”.

¹⁸

The main analytical level of this study concerns the first, textual, dimension in each of the texts studied, aiming to draw conclusions about the other two dimensions in the later interpretation.

The main part of the study is divided up in two chapters: Chapter 3, which investigates the Good versus Evil-narrative in the Western cinematic feature film (The term Western here does not refer to the genre of the Cowboy Movie but serves to define cultural identity) and Chapter 4, which looks at public expression in the three selected Western cultures. To achieve a broader view of the different media of political expression, a specific case study is chosen for each of the three countries.

The aim of the procedure is to identify re-emerging themes in the depiction of good and evil. This is achieved by deductively following the grounded theory approach detailed by Glaser and Strauss.

The “conceptual categories” of Grounded Theory are accordingly defined as the principal con- cepts of good and evil, “properties” translate as motifs in their depiction, identified throughout the analyses

¹⁹

. This study seeks to identify sets of such motifs form the themes. This identification of themes is undertaken upon their emergence. Themes may, however, later be readjusted to encompass additional observations

²⁰

. In that sense, the consecutive textual studies serve both heuristic and theory testing purposes in that they contribute to mapping the mainstream discourse on the dual concept of good and evil, while simultaneously testing its consistency beyond bounds of genres as well as orders of discourse.

²¹

It is an inherent problem of CDA that the line between discourse practice and social practice is hard to draw

²²

. Both dimensions are treated as equally important in answering the research question.

Their investigation is therefore not undertaken in every single case study, but in a later synthetic in- terpretation. The themes are accordingly understood to arise only in the comparison of the different texts studied and expressed in the frequency with which the identified themes re-emerge across these analyses. The discussion is therefore undertaken evaluating and comparing the findings of the preced- ing chapters.

3.3 Selection of case studies

The case studies that make up Chapter 4 are designed to cover as broad a discursive field as possible.

Therefore, one case study has been selected for the United States, Germany and Sweden respectively, with every study focussing on different modes of socio-political communication.

18 Fairclough, 1995:97; cf. also Winther Jørgensen & Phillips, 2000:74f.

19 cf. Barney G. Glaser & Anselm L. Strauss, 1999. The discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Third paperback printing 2008. New Brunswick (NJ, US): AldineTransactions (Transaction Publishers):36; cf.

also Mats Alvesson & Kai Sköldberg, 2000. Reflexive methodology. New Vistas in Qualitative Research. London (UK):

SAGE Publications Ltd. (2^nd edition 2009, 2013 reprint):62ff.

20 cf. Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2000:62ff.

21 cf. Alexander L. George & Andrew Bennet, 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in Social Sciences. Cam- bridge (MA, US): Belfer Center for Sciences and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University:75.

22 cf. Winther Jørgensen & Phillips, 2000:93.

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The chapter starts with a study of key campaign speeches held by each of the two main party nominees for the post of President of the United States. As the form of advertisement that they are, these speeches are expected to apply narratives consciously, employing mechanism similar to those observed by Jackson

²³

.

Case Study II also looks at such presumably conscious, orchestrated discourse practice. How- ever, where Case Study I follows a top-down approach, having established politicians talk to their voters and supporters, this case study concentrates on the opposite position: the (presumed) bottom- up communication of the German popular movement protesting the transatlantic trade agreements TTIP and CETA.

Finally, Case Study III focusses on users’ comments exchanged in the social network Facebook.

The views expressed in such user-generated content, as new media scholar Clay Shirky argues, is often not intended as a broadcast but rather a private conversation that happens to happen in a public space

²⁴

, a special form expression which Shirky calls many-to-many communication

²⁵

. The idea is that accordingly, discourse is less filtered, and less consciously constituted, which in a sense leads to a more honest expression of views and narratives.

²⁶

3.4 Limitations, delimitations, and ethical considerations

This thesis focuses exclusively on discourse in the West. While terms such as Western and the West may seem to represent an ideological position, that is not so: albeit adopted from the tradition of Cold War terminology, these terms are here used exclusively to refer to the civilisation with its perceived centre in Western Europe and the US, assumed to also include countries such as New Zealand and Australia, as well as social élites in for example Israel and the Global South. The West should there- fore not be understood as opposed to for example the East, but rather in a sense similar to that made popular by Huntington

²⁷

and others, as a cultural unit separate from other units such as for example the Sunnī ummah, or the pan-Slavic civilisation. Although the West is transcended by liberal think- ing in the form of democracy and capitalism, it should not be confused with for example liberalist ideology itself, nor with the economic unit of the Global North, with which it happens to be largely identical in terms of geography.

²⁸

Concerning religion, the theoretical framework of the study is deliberately limited to the Chris- tian faith and theological tradition, including ideas and interpretations from pre-Christian Judaism.

23 cf. Jackson, 2005.

24 cf. Clay Shirky, 2008. Here Comes Everybody. The Power of organizing Without Organizations. New York (NY, US): Penguin Group (US) Inc.:85.

25 Shirky, 2008:86f.

26 Admittedly, the post-election debate abpout internet trolls consciously influencing US discourse contradicts that assumptions.

27 cf. Samuel P. Huntington, 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York (NY, US):

Simon & Schuster Paperbacks:21ff; 28.

28 This does of course preclude the cultural blends and multiple cultural identities in individuals and societies. Note that the concept is but a simplified model of reality.

This focus will throughout this thesis be referred to simply as Christian tradition. The rationale for this delimitation is the assumption that the Christian faith, as opposed to other religions, transcends European law, philosophy

²⁹

and moral values, plays a great role in their inception, and is by many considered a core part of Western identity

³⁰

.

All of the three case studies in Chapter 3 are in different ways related to the discursive role of the news media. It may hence seem like an oversight that the news media itself is not separately studied.

However, as elaborated above, the assumption is that news sources, especially in times of mobile internet and unprecedented connectivity, may be more consciously chosen than other cultural influ- ences, considering their expected role as discursive and social actors. Bearing in mind the widely- shared scepticism concerning the independence of mainstream news media, an investigation as to the legitimacy of these doubts may be in place. Positioning such an investigation within this thesis would however unduly expand its scope, which is why it falls outside its delimitation.

The thesis also has its technical limitations. Based on the author’s own background as a social scientist, and with regard to the limited intended extent of the thesis, observations are kept superficial where they touch upon more specialised fields such as psychoanalysis and theology; concerning the focus of the inquiry, the risk for misunderstandings arising thence to influence the findings of the overall analysis is however deemed acceptably small.

The study is also limited by its analytical framework. CDA, while focussing on the actively con- stituting linguistic and discursive processes undertaken to create and reaffirm discourses

³¹

, is inap- propriate to answer the question how these discursive groups are created

³²

. Furthermore, as Winther- Jørgensen and Phillips point out, CDA may have trouble with political neutrality

³³

; Fairclough clearly categorises CDA, as part of the in its origin Marxist critical tradition, in opposition to “the abuses and contradictions of capitalist society” and the “social and political climate” that alternative views share with the “new right”

³⁴

. Also, no study touching on a political issue as passionately discussed as Western cultural identity can claim total political neutrality. Meanwhile, for this study, great care is taken to reduce political skew of the study to a minimum — and the critical analysis of stereotypes and morality at the core of the study may indeed help to examine and neutralise bias.

A similar problem arises in the context of religious neutrality. The thesis departs from an areli- gious default position, thinking it less prone to bias handling religious themes, and deeming personal beliefs irrelevant in the interpretation of cognition and behaviour related to them. Injury to religious’

readers’ feelings are not intended. Where the term story is used, it should be read as an account of a certain event (or chain of events) and is meant to neither affirm nor contest the authenticity of the

29 cf. Karl Löwith, 1960?. Der philosophische Begriff des Besten und Bösen. In: von Franz et al. 1961:219.

30 cf. Liliane Frey-Rohn, 1960?. Das Böse in psychologischer Sicht:162.

31 cf. Winther Jørgensen & Phillips, 2000:67f.

34 Fairclough, 1995:15f.

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respective account –– in the words of C. G. Jung:

“My reader should never forget, however, that I a not making a confession or writing a ten- dentious tract, but am simply considering how certain things could be understood from the standpoint of our modern consciousness [...]”³⁵

The assumption that the cinematic motion picture is representative of the mainstream discourse in entertainment media can, benevolently judged, not claim to be anything more than an informed guess.

Interpretations of the influence of narrative themes identified in this study on social cognition should therefore be strictly related to the according target audiences. This study is not (nor does it claim to be) able to discern whether, or in which way, discursive parallels between fictional and political narra- tives are causally related. Furthermore, visitor counts from cinemas do not reliably reflect the reality of film consumption as they do not include other channels. This skew can here not be avoided, as data of, for example, illegal consumption via the internet or private use of recordings is close to impossible to quantify. However, the numbers are here assumed to give a general impression of a films’ success with the audience.

Case Study II also contains, among emails and campaign material, insights gained from the au- thor’s personal observations at a protest march held in Hanover on April 23

^rd

, 2016. This material is by necessity subjective and unreferenced. It is however deemed to contribute to the overall analysis with minimal skew.

Case Study III proves to be limited in several ways. Firstly, it would arguably have been more conductive to the end of this study to concentrate on articles posted on only one topic over a much longer period (considering that Case Studies I and II also concern a longer period) instead of the chosen set of comments. However, the infrastructure and manoeuvrability of Facebook made this somewhat hard to achieve. Secondly, the comments cannot (and should not) be understood as fully representative of the discourse among the audience of the news source in question, as only users of Facebook (hereafter simple referred to as users) are enabled to participate in the debate. Only some of these users may actually employ the commenting tool, and the wording of their comments may be influenced by vocabulary and rhetoric of the original article to a degree beyond that of the general discourse. In addition, the news source publishing the articles discussed respectively may remove some of the original comments where they violate certain rules, for example of appropriate language.

Unless otherwise specified, all translations of passages in languages other than English are by the author, who takes responsibility for mistakes or misinterpretations thence arising.

35 Carl G. Jung, 1951. Aion. Researches Into the Phenomenology of the Self. 1959 Edition, translated from the German original by Richard F. C. Hull, edited by Sir Herbert Read, Michael Fordham and Gerhard Adler. New York (NY, US):

Bollinger Foundation Inc./Pantheon Books, Inc.: x.

Chapter 1

Evil and Good in philosophy and the humanities

1. Attempts at definitions

„Die Aufteilung der Welt in Gut und Böse ist in dieser Verallgemei- nerung und Verabsolutierung der beiden Eigenschaften ein philoso- phischer Akt. Dieser hat wohl seine Grundlagen in der menschlichen, ja in der außermenschlichen Natur und seine Vorläufer in Mythen und Riten, die das zeitweilige, meist pe- riodisch wiederkehrende Übel zu bannen, zähmen und einzuordnen versuchen.”

“The segmentation of the World into Good and Evil in this generalisation and absolutising of the two charac- teristics is a philosophical act. It arguably has its roots in human, even extra-human, nature and its precur- sors in myths and rites that seek to ban, tame and categorise Evil, which returns mostly periodically.”¹

1

The dual archetype of good and evil transcends Western culture, and remains largely unchanged even today. In its mythical quality it proves remarkably resistant; its realm is not reduced to religious and mythical traditions, nor secular storytelling, but even spreads to politics and the otherwise so rational environs of science. With terms and phrases like “so-called evil”

²

, “[to] turn evil”

³

and “the banality of evil”

⁴

, social scientists as diverse as Konrad Lorenz, Philipp Zimbardo and, prominently, Hannah Arendt show no restraints in implicitly or explicitly characterising character traits, behaviour, or en- tire persons as evil. The term (and the concept) evil is by and large used as if it were a self-explanatory concept needing no further qualifications. Still, a scientific approach to the topic should start with a definition, or at least a conception of its subject that can be put into words. Let us therefore have a look at two such conceptualisations.

1 Karl Kerényi, 1960? Das Problem des Bösen in der Mythologie:18 .

2 Konrad Lorenz, 1963. Das sogenannte Böse. Zur Naturgeschichte der Aggression. Vienna (AT): Dr, G. Borotha Sch- oeller Verlag Wien.

3 Philip Zimbardo, 2007. The Lucifer Effect. How Good People Turn Evil. New York (NY, US): Random House, Inc.

4 Hannah Arendt, 1963. Eichmann in Jesrusalem. A Report on the banality of Evil. 2006 reprint, with an introduction by Amos Elon. New York (NY, US): Penguin Group (US), Inc.

8 ...And Reconcile Us with Evil

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Webster’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary offers the following set of definitions:

1evil \’ē-vǝl\ adj […] 1 a : not good morally: ^WICKED b : arising from bad character or conduct

<

a person of evil reputation

>

2 a : causing discomfort or repulsion: OFFENSIVE b :

DISAGREEABLE

<

in an evil temper

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[Old English yfel] […]

2evil n 1 : something that brings sorrow, distress, or calamity 2 : the fact of suffering, misfortune, and wrongdoing […]⁵

In the open encyclopaedia Wikipedia, a user-generated online resource and as such perhaps not viable as a scientific source, yet certainly representative as a sample of the discourse among its users and audience, the English language article on evil is introduced by the following:

Evil, in a general context, is the absence or opposite of that which is described as being good.

Often, evil is used to denote profound immorality. In certain religious contexts, evil has been described as a supernatural force. Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives.

However, elements that are commonly associated with evil involve unbalanced behavior [sic] involving expediency, selfishness, ignorance, or neglect.⁶

While both these entries mean to describe the discursively agreed upon understanding of evil, one is produced and filtered by a redactional organ, and thus has a prescriptive character, while the second is — at least in theory — open for the audience to change and adjust more swiftly to changes in dis- course.

2. Morality and group cohesion

It is striking that both sources name as the primary feature of evil its opposition to good. Good is clearly a quality, which in this context is presumed to not need any further definition: Wikipedia does so far not contain an article on good (albeit one on the “Good and Evil” dichotomy

⁷

), while Webster’s entry on good describes a plethora of concepts, yet not one that simply states that good is the oppo- site of evil. Good is clearly not as easily defined as evil. While evil may also nes used as a noun, the English language does not typically allow the similar usage of good.

The term describes a great variety of things; as an adjective in the sense of the general “of a fa- vorable [sic] character”

⁸

it may serve to qualify attributes as diverse as “comely, attractive”, healthy,

“commercially reliable” or “certain to elicit a specific result”

⁹

. Wikipedia authors describe it as a

5 Merriam-Webster, 1993. Webster’s New Encyclopedic Dictionary. Revised Edition. Cologne (DE): Könemann Ver- lags GmbH:347.

6 Wikipedia, 2016a. Evil. HTML available online through: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil> [Accessed 11 March 2016].

7 Wikipedia, 2016b. Good and Evil. HTML available through: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_and_evil> [Ac- cessed 3 Febuary 2016].

8 Merriam-Webster, 1993:431.

9 ibid.

“broad concept” which “deals with an association with life, charity, continuity, happiness, love and justice.”

¹⁰

The underlying assumption seems to be that good is the default state, while evil requires active opposition. Evil is thus perceived as innately and necessarily immoral. Morality as such is generally defined in two potentially contradictory ways.

Intuitively, morality may be defined, as maintained by Kant, according to the pure will guiding moral deed

¹¹

. Moral action would thus have to follow Kant’s categorical imperative, namely a propo- sition of necessary action (imperative)

¹²

that is objectively necessary (categorical; as opposed to hy- pothetical: as a means to an end)

¹³

. The categorical imperative prescribing a certain action at the basis of the maxim of that action, notwithstanding its nature or success, is what Kant accordingly calls the moral imperative (“[Imperativ] der Sittlichkeit”).

¹⁴

If the according morality of wilful action is to be taken as universally applicable, this presupposes that the nature of this pure will is equally universally accepted and instinctively recognised as such. It is thus a priori, that is instinctively recognised and not dependent on earlier experiences.

¹⁵

In an alternative perspective put forward by Friedrich Nietzsche however, morality may on the contrary be based on the unintended results of the action

¹⁶

. This contrasts individual morality with collective morality, as the latter, according to Nietzsche, is expressed by way of heeding and serv- ing (internalised or real) superior powers

¹⁷

. This notion essentially devaluates Kant’s morality in supposing that the assumed law derived from the maxim of the action in the moral imperative will necessarily become detached from its practical point of reference; and that it will eventually end up contradicting the maxim of the individual’s action. Friedrich Nietzsche claims that to rely on a priori propositions, such as “logical fiction” about reality means to choose belief instead of truth

¹⁸

. Morality, Nietzsche maintains, is therefore no longer concerned with right and wrong in the absolute, a priori sense in which is defined by Kant, but has been reduced to the purpose of affirming group identity

¹⁹

.

According to this social functionalist interpretation, the main purpose of morality is to promote the exertion of self-control, “sacrificing self-interest for the sake of society, where [it conflicts] with

10 cf. Wikipedia, 2016b.

11 Immanuel Kant, 1793. Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft. 1978 reprint of the 1794 second edition, edited by Karl Vorländer, with an introduction by Hermann Noack. Hamburg (DE): Felix Meiner Verlag:19.

12 Immanuel Kant, 1785. Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten. 1999 edition by Bernd Kraft and Dieter Schönecker.

Hamburg (DE): Felix Meiner Verlag GmbH.:35 (414).

13 Kant, 1785:36f (415).

14 Kant,1785:39 (416).

15 cf. Immanuel Kant, 1781. Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Complete 2015 edition (based on the second edition, 1787).

Köln (DE): Anaconda Verlag GmbH:60 (29).

16 Friedrich Nietzsche, 1885. Jenseits von gut und Böse. Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft. Undated edition.

München (DE): Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag:34ff.

17 cf. Nietzsche, 1885:82ff; cf.also Sigmund Freud, 1923. Das Ich und das Es. Leipzig (DE): Internationaler Psycho- analytscher Verlag:43f — cf. also: Fairclough (1995:2), who would characterise such collective moral propositions as elements of ideological discourse.

18 cf. Nietzsche, 1885:9; 14.

10 ...And Reconcile Us with Evil Chapter 1 – Evil and Good in philosophy and the humanities 11

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society’s interest”.

²⁰

As Frey-Rohn points out, the opposition of good and evil has strong emotional overtones, and doing evil deed generally leads to bad conscience.

²¹

In consequence, evil no longer means an instinctively recognisable wrong (as which, in reversing the Kantian imperative, the elders of the collective would legitimise it), but anything that poses a threat to social cohesion.

²²

The chief motive to oppose such threat is less the acclaimed a priori moral proposition, and more that of the fear of losing peer recognition

²³

.

3. Beyond morality

Morality, at least implicitly, seems to be a central factor in any conceptions of good and evil. The Wikipedia-author for instance, otherwise careful to separate secular from spiritual notions, can only describe evil, even in “events and conditions without agency”

²⁴

in such ways that “[…] presume an evildoer or doers [sic]”.

²⁵

This mythical idea of situations and inanimate objects being (or giving rise to) evil, which is also present in Webster’s (“an evil day”, “something that brings sorrow […]”

²⁶

) is peculiar supposing that morality (and consequently immorality) requires consciousness. An enlight- ening insight is here contributed by Immanuel Kant who claims that evaluation is based on context:

„Der eine chirurgische Operation an sich verrichten lässt, fühlt sie ohne Zweifel als Übel; aber durch Vernunft erkärt er und jedermann sie für Gut.”

“He upon whom is performed sur- gery without doubt experiences it as an evil; however, through reason, he, as anyone, recognises it as good.”²⁷

192021222324252627

There is accordingly a subjective and an objective value to be assigned: evil is both the passively not- good and the actively anti-good

²⁸

. Kant accordingly distinguishes two forms of the good (bonum), das Gute and das Wohl and two forms of evil (malum), das Böse and das Übel (also referred to as das Weh)

²⁹

. These categories do not translate well to English: das Übel, which it would make etymologi- cal sense to translate as “evil”, will here be referred to as the woe. It describes a more general concept,

19 Which in itself is hardly a surprise: the idea that evil deed is defined as something that disrupts or threatens society and social cohesion is already present and quite explicit in the OT, as Andreas Wagner maintains. (cf. Andreas Wagner, 2012. Das Böse im Gefüge prophetischer Anthropologie und Theologie. In Ebner et al., 2012:32f).

20 Anne L. Geyer & Roy F. Baumeister, 2005. Religion, Morality, and Self-Control: Values, Virtues, and Vices. In:

Paloutzian & Park (eds.), 2005:419.

21 cf. Frey-Rohn, L, 1960?. Das Böse in Psychologischer Sicht:161; cf. also Geyer & Baumeister, 2005:426.

22 Geyer & Baumeister, 2005: 427; cf. also Nietzsche, 1885:86f.

23 cf. ibid.

24 cf. Wikipedia, 2016a.

25 cf. ibid.

26 See above; cf. Merriam-Webster, 1993:431, emphasis mine.

27 Immanuel Kant, 1788. Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. Complete 2015 edition (based on the 1908 edition). Köln (DE): Anaconda Verlag GmbH.:777 (61).

28 cf. Kant, 1794:footnote to page 21f (10).

29 Kant, 1788:776 (60).

encompassing all that is physically not good. Meanwhile, das Böse, which is also typically translated as evil, is constituted by conscious evil deed

³⁰

(or according to an evil maxim, as Kant would have it

³¹

) for which its author can thus be held responsible

³²

. The concept will here be referred to by the term malevolence.

The fact that at least the English language discourse does not make this distinction (as is evi- dent from the Wikipedia-author’s remark about evildoers

³³

) serves as an indication for the tendency to implicitly assume a malefactor behind a woe which really results from inanimate or disorganised conditions and as such stands beyond moral evaluation.

Among others, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in reference to scripture, illuminated the human dimen- sion of this dichotomy by maintaining that the Creator (“l’auteur des choses”) has made all good things

³⁴

, while aught manmade must (though not necessarily with intent) be degenerate

³⁵

. Such phi- losophy is also reflected in modern day conservationism and ecology, which is concerned with pro- tecting (divine) nature from the woe of (manmade) technology.

4. Skotos and the evil entity

An explanation for the tendency to assume a malevolent agenda rather than mere woe stems from psychoanalysis: Carl Gustav Jung coined the terms of the shadow, referring to the unconscious sup- pressed part of the human psyche in which, among other unloved traits and urges, evil dwells

³⁶

. This thesis is only concerned with part of this conglomeration, namely that which the individual (or, by extension, society), be it consciously or pre-consciously, identifies as evil by its own moral and emo- tional standards. To avoid confusion with the much wider concept of the Jungian shadow, which also

“displays a number of good qualities [...]”

³⁷

, this inner evil will here therefore be referred to as skotos.

Following its above described inert need to avoid guilt, the individual fails to accept these negative parts of itself. It then either, as Freud describes, becomes physically ill, accepting suffering and weak- ness as punishment for (real or imagined) moral vice

³⁸

, or, as Jung describes, reverts to projecting its own skotos on an outside entity which is then vilified

³⁹

. As Jung stresses, this process is by no means to be interpreted as one of malevolence:

30 cf. Kerényi, 1960?:11ff.

31 cf. Kant, 1785:18f (400).

32 cf. also Jörg Frey & Gabrielle Oberhänsli-Widmer, 2012: Der Diskurs um ›das Böse‹ und der Beitrag biblisch- theologischer Perspektiven:IX.

33 See above.

34 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762. Emile ou De l’éducation. Livre I. 1969 edition published by Bernard Gagnebin &

Marcel Raymond (eds.), Bibliothèque de la pléiade, Dijon (FR):Editions Gallimard:245; cf. also Gen 1.1–20.

35 cf. Rousseau,1762:245.

36 cf. Jung, 1951: 8.

37 cf. Jung, 1951: 266.

38 Freud, 1923:62f.

39 cf. Jung, 1951: 9; Frey-Rohn, 1960?:170;174.

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“As we know, it is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting.

Hence one meets with projections, one does not make them.”⁴⁰

This evil entity on which the skotos is projected is accordingly perceived as malevolent

⁴¹

and often as- sociated with repulsion and misfortune

⁴²

, a notion lacking from the Wikipedia material. Nevertheless, this motif is an important one, in fact so much so, that the German word for ugly (hässlich) literally means hateful or hateable. This is perhaps not surprising: according to Karl Löwith, the traditional Greek philosophical view of the kosmos (κόσμος) is one of goodness and beauty

⁴³

; an evil that is understood as the negation of nature’s divinity would thus consequently have to be identified with ugliness. Even a such outside evil entity is associated with illness in that it is understood to weaken and de-value those which it has infected

⁴⁴

. The assumption that the attributed (mythical) malevolent power uses the thus weakened individual as a tool for its evil deed is not altogether unrealistic, for as Freud points out, unconscious guilt can in fact affect people to do evil to compensate their suffering

⁴⁵

. This motif is paralleled by Freud’s image of the ego as a weak entity:

„Nach beiden Seiten hilflos, wehrt sich das Ich vergeblich gegen die Zumutungen des mörderischen Es wie gegen die Vorwürfe des strafen- den Gewissens.”

“In helpless opposition to both sides, the ego futilely defends itself against the impositions of the mur- derous id as against the incrimina- tios of the punishing conscience.”⁴⁶

40

414243444546

5. Subordination, domination or integration?

Rationality, and explicitly its great prophet Immanuel Kant, remind us that man can choose to do evil or good

⁴⁷

. Why then, might we ask, would anyone choose to be malevolent? Clearly, malevolence has a certain appeal, which grows in pace with the degree of the ill it entails

⁴⁸

and which is pronounced even more in the theoretical negotiation of evil: Fiction would arguably hold considerably less charm were it only concerned with goodness

⁴⁹

. There is thus temptation to either fully deny one’s skotos, or to give in to its perceived evil

⁵⁰

, thereby (with both alternatives) avoiding the struggle entailed in its recognition and negotiation on the path of individuation and self-realisation: the wholesome hu-

40 cf Jung, 1951: 9, emphasis mine.

41 cf. ibid.

42 cf. Frey-Rohn, 1960?:171f.

43 cf. Karl Löwith, 1961. Der philosophische Begriff des Besten und Bösen:212.

44 cf. Karl Löwith, 1961:212f.

45 cf. Freud, 1923:67.

46 Freud, 1923:69f, Emphasis mine.

47 cf. Kant, 1793: 36f (32f).

48 cf. Frey-Rohn, 1960?:194.

49 cf. Frey & Oberhänsli-Widmer, 2012:VII.

50 cf. Freud, 1923:32f, 43f (in the context of sexual morals).

man soul needs to assimilate its shadow

⁵²

. Already in 1786 Kant, unwittingly foreshadowing Jung’s psychology, claimed that:

„Die moralische Selbsterkenntnis, die in die schwerer zu ergründen- den Tiefen oder den Abgrund des Herzens zu dringen verlangt, ist al- ler menschlichen Weisheit Anfang.

Denn die letztere, welche in der Zusammenstimmung des Willens ei- nes Wesens zum Endzweck besteht, bedarf beim Menschen zu allererst der Wegräumung der inneren Hin- dernisse (eines bösen in ihm geni- stelten [sic] Willens), und dann der Entwicklung der nie verlierbaren ursprünglichen Anlage eines guten Willens in ihm zu entwickeln. Nur die Höllenfahrt der Selbsterkenntnis bahnt den Weg zur Vergötterung.“

“Moral cognition of the self, which wants to penetrate the less easily fathomable depths or the abyss of the heart, is the seed of all human wisdom. For, in a human, the latter, which exists in the harmony of a being’s will towards its purpose, necessitates first and foremost the removal of the inner hindrances (an evil will nesting within), and then to promote the development of an in- erasable inert good will within him.

Only the descent into hell clears the way to divinity.”⁵³

5152

Accordingly, the collectively (rationally) good, which finds its expression in the categorical impera- tive and is also reflected in Freud’s super-ego

⁵³

, may well be subjectively woe-ful — and vice-versa

⁵⁴

: To successfully negotiate and integrate its shadow the individual will have to withstand this disso- nance and take upon itself the guilt of enduring its own malevolence

⁵⁵

. This means dealing with po- tentially inappropriate pressure from society or the super-ego

⁵⁶

, and is arguably less easily achieved then projecting skotos upon an exterior entity.

6. Outside villains

This exterior evil entity does not necessarily have to be a de-personalised, mystified power but may very well be a very real individual or out-group

⁵⁷

. It follows from the above social functionalist inter- pretation of morality that the in-group will identify with the good. Accordingly, any stranger or out- group is an opportune target for the assignment of the source of evil: Its negative aspects are plainly visible to non-members

⁵⁸

, meanwhile it never gets a chance to disprove the assumed negative features

51 cf. Frey-Rohn, 1960?:195ff; also: Jung, 1951:24.

52 Immanuel Kant, 1797. Die Metaphysik der Sitten. 1959 reprint of the 1922 edition, published by Karl Vorländer.

Hamburg (DE): Felix Meiner Verlag GmbH:293f (441), emphasis mine.

53 cf. Freud, 1923:43f, 61.

54 cf. Frey-Rohn, 1960?:166f.

55 cf. Frey-Rohn, 1960?:196.

56 cf. Freud, 1923:66.

57 As opposed to the in-group, the group which the individual thinks itself a member of, an out-group is a collective to which the individual does not feel associated. Cf. Elliot Aronson et al., 2005. Social Psychology. 2014 edition. London (UK): Pearson Education Limited:353.

58 cf. Marie-Luise von Franz, 1974. Shadow & Evil in Fairytales. Zürich (CH): Spring Publications:8.

...And Reconcile Us With Evil: A Critical Investigation of the Imagery of Good and Evil in Western Religion, Film and Politics